Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera died when the small plane she was traveling in with at least five others crashed in Mexico recently. Rivera was a superstar in the Hispanic community even if you've never heard of her.

What does this have to do with politics? I am going to be carefully watching to see what politicians attend her funeral when it is scheduled. I'm especially interested if any Republicans show up.

Politics is about much more than running a campaign every two or four years. It's a permanent process.

Politics has always been about connecting with people at a cultural level. Politics is about a continuous interconnection between the party and candidates and the constituencies they need to win elections.

There is nothing like a funeral of a famous person or a victim of gun violence for a political party to establish its concern for a constituency. It's not really about inserting an immigration clause in the party platform. It's not about a candidate saying, "I want Hispanics to vote for me." It's about doing groundwork.

Getting into the community, understanding local concerns, meeting local leaders. That includes cultural leaders as well as Hispanic business leaders and community leaders. I'm talking Rotary club, LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens) and establishing a continuous connection to the constituency.

The article "Latino Vote Sprang From Local Touch" in Roll Call is worth reading. In it Humberto Sanchez writes, "If it weren't for Senators Harry Reid (Democratic from Nevada) and Michael Bennet (Democrat from Colorado), President Barack Obama might not have won a second term. The Democratic senators' pioneering efforts in reaching out to Latino voters in their 2010 re-election races in Nevada and Colorado provided a template that Obama for America developed into a national juggernaut."

He continues by pointing out that both Reid and Bennet had long given "high-profile support for policies important to Latinos." In particular they were both supporters of the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform.

Journalist and Latino outreach director Gabriela Domenzain explains, "I started plugging along, finding every single regional media, all the little nooks and crannies of our media that are so important."

Domenzain was hired by Obama for America a year and a half before the election. "Whether it's the weekly that is going to stay in the laundromat for two weeks, we can get a front page article there, or it's the really, really, really regional radio hosts that [are] in areas that analytics ... [say] that I need."

She also contacted 700 Latino journalists who had never been interested or done any politics. Many were mainly interested in music and very micro-local issues (dogs biting children in a neighborhood, Hispanics getting local awards, obituaries, etc.). In this way she injected some small slice of Democratic politics into places it had never been before.

The lesson for Republicans is that if the party wants to up its game with Hispanic voters next time around it can't wait for election season. Politics is a 24/7 year-round activity that, like gardening, requires constant attention and tending to the "crop."

The same is true of younger voters and single women, both of which Republicans also lost badly in the 2012 election.

This is really not rocket science. Former U.S. Speaker of the House "Tip" O'Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat, said it best: "All politics is local." He was right. Anyone who forgets that risks losing in politics.

So while you may think I've bumped my head, watching who attends Jenni Rivera's funeral is actually a pretty good metric on which politicians and which party understands the importance of reaching down into communities, especially the politically important Hispanic/Latino community, even when there are no elections scheduled.